
Meet Princess Tiana: the Race Industry's worst nightmare. She's a strong, smart, hardworking young black woman who takes no prisoners and believes hard work is the only way to get ahead.
Today, a few of us went to see Disney’s “Princess & the Frog”.
It is an interesting, but not terribly good movie, but one we feel is incredibly important in so very many ways.
This won’t be a review, but we’re breaking this post here so that if you don’t want to know what happens in the movie, you won’t read any further (though, if you have not been in a coma for several decades, you should be able to identify and anticipate the Disney formulaic flourishes used in the movie, without even seeing it).
The most interesting thing about “Princess and the Frog” (hereafter, PatF) is how loudly, FREQUENTLY, it looks directly at the black community and tells it to get off its a**, work hard, stop blaming others for their problems, and take ownership of their lives.
Honestly, it beats this drum over and over again, like an after school special telling kids not to take candy from strangers or do drugs in the bathroom between classes.
The lead character, Tiana, says over and over and over again that the only way she’s going to make anything of herself is to work hard. She saves up every penny she makes, instead of spending it going out drinking and dancing, so she can start her own business.
At least five separate times, she literally looks at the audience and says, “Work hard. Get out of bed and go to work. Stop being lazy. Stop blaming other people for your problems. Find a goal and go work towards it”.
It’s brilliant.
We think, if this is viewed enough in black households, that the next generation to grow up with this film as a cherished part of their childhood will be completely immune to the Race Industry’s siren call of sloth, greed, and grievance-mongering.
Tiana is the kind of young black woman we’ve long been friends with. She reminds us, quite literally, of the hard-working, bright, wonderful black friends we have. She is a fantastic new character for Disney’s pantheon.
The film itself, however, is middling.
Watching it, we kept thinking, “this could have been really GREAT” if only Disney had tried harder. In many places, it seemed that whole scenes were cut out for one reason or another, and subplots and elements of the story felt excised…where we believe the Race Industry, in the form of people like Sharpton, stepped in during focus groups and told Disney to remove this or that.
When we originally heard about this film in production, Tiana was supposed to have a younger sister, who we heard was supposed to be very lazy and spoiled. It feels like that character was cut from the film, as she’d be too much of a contrast with hardworking Tiana…in a Highlights for Children, Goofus & Gallant sort of way. It would have been marvelous, though, if Tiana was seen working hard, with a goal, blaming no one, while her sister “Henrietta”, rolled around on the floor crying and wailing that everyone was out to get her, and that the reason she was getting nowhere in life was because everyone was holding her back. But, that would have been too on the nose, too obvious a slam at Sharpton, Gates, Jackson, Eric Holder, Spike Lee, John Lewis, James Clyburne, and the host of other race-baiters.
As it is, we have no idea how Disney got this movie passed the Race Industry censors: we imagine a great many little girls, and quite a few little boys, going home to their parents and asking them why they don’t work as hard as Tiana and her family…why they don’t have goals…why they don’t want to open their own businesses instead of crying about the government not giving them everything they want.
We hope there are lots of awkward moments in homes prompted by Tiana’s addition to the Disney princess line.
The character, honestly, has the potential to be the Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the Race Industry’s blood-sucking fiends.
Work hard. Never stop working hard. Never let anything hold you back. They just kept hammering that, and hammering that, and hammering it some more.
Loved every minute of it.
Tiana worked two jobs, while working on her dream of opening her own restaurant in her spare time. People who don’t even have one job are going to be embarrassed when their children see Tiana as a role model. That embarrassment is much-deserved and a long time coming.
The film is actually interesting enough for a more detailed and complete review from us, as it touches on a great many interesting themes. The villain, Dr. Facilier, is the spitting imagine of our current president, Dr. Utopia, in looks, mannerism, and motives. It’s staggering this got passed the Race Industry, too.
Dr. Facilier is a skinny, effeminate, charismatic light-skinned black man sharply dressed who appears from the shadows and promises the gullible and naive everything they’ve ever dreamed of, but never explains how much it will cost. It’s never clear what his real motives are, except that he wants to enrich himself. He’s allied with nebulous villains cloaked in darkness, with the largest one bearing a creepy resemblance to George Soros himself. When challenged, he summons virtual minions existing between worlds to race out and do his bidding — very reminiscent of Dr. Utopia’s Cyber Team of hackers, bloggers, and Daily Kos/Huffington Post liberals.
Several Dr. Facilier scenes appear to be missing…and his end comes much too fast, and much to anticlimactically…so it really does feel like the Race Industry forced Disney to scale SOMETHING back with him. Unlike other truly memorable Disney villains, like Jaffar, Ursula, Maleficent, etc., Dr. Falicier doesn’t have the depth of motive or exposition to establish what he’s really up to, where he comes from, and what he wants to do to the main characters and why. Does Facilier want money? Does he want immortality and power? Does he want some lofty position? Who knows.
That’s what makes us feel like Disney had something in there explaining all this, but it was cut out. There are two points in the film where the action jumps to a totally different location, with no explanation, that feels like 15 minutes or so was cut. A lot of Dr. Facilier’s character development could have happened in those minutes.
It’s our sincere hope this movie becomes a true classic — despite it’s faults, and the fact that it feels rushed and incomplete in places. The message it’s directing to the black community to start working hard and stop looking for magical handouts is TREMENDOUSLY important. And the subversive effect Dr. Facilier could have on Dr. Utopia’s poll numbers can’t be overstated: if people pick up on the resemblance, and start associating one with the other, they will rip to shreds the carefully constructed MSM image of Dr. Utopia as a divine Lightbringer…and not the Shadow Man he truly is.
December 12, 2009 at 1:51 am
Tiana’s sister, if she was cut out of the movie, could have instead hooked up with Dr. Facilier.
December 12, 2009 at 11:21 am
After 60 years Disney finally has a black princess?? That is nothing to be proud of.
December 12, 2009 at 11:48 am
Part of the reason Disney didn’t use a black character before was because of the Race Industry: Disney knew it would be criticized no matter what it did by Sharpton, Gates, Jackson, et al. It was probably easier for them to just not do a black story than to worry about those lunatics raking them over the coals like they did for Song of the South or the black characters that appeared in, but had to be removed from, Fantasia etc. They probably avoided the issue for so long because who wants to deal with the Race Industry on a multi-million dollar make or break project?
December 12, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Yeah, I agree. I think that’s also why various TV shows don’t include gay characters – they know that no matter what they do, someone’s going to jump on them and accuse them of every bad motivation and stereotype in the book.
December 12, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Yes Hillbuzz,
maybe that was the same reason some so called “pro black” democrat president did not have a single black person in his presidential cabinet, did not support the Civil Rights Act and put his own brother as Attorney Genaral.
December 12, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Disney got knocked for Pocohontas and Aladdin by the race baiters, so I’m not surprised it took so long. I’ve been really surprised since then that they haven’t made all the villains in their movies white to try to appease the race baiters even more.
The only thing I object to about Disney “Princesses” is that they are always very thin and very curvy, more like a Barbie than a real female.
December 12, 2009 at 2:04 am
We took our 2 YO grand daughter to see this yesterday. We really liked it. Being married to a Cajun and having lived in Louisiana for several years, I can say that the music, food and accents were nailed. Visually it was gorgeous. I predict Tiana will become the most popular princess in the next few years. Some of it was rushed but the 2 YO didn’t care. Hard to believe Dr. F made it past the Race Baiters.
I give it a 3 outta 4 stars.
December 12, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Give them time.
December 12, 2009 at 2:21 pm
I am interested to see my friends’ reactions to it when they take their little girls. My daughter and I are going to see it next week. I waited to see what HB thought of it. So far, sounds good to me! Abput damn time that lesson is taught. And through animation, no less!
December 12, 2009 at 2:12 am
Sounds like a daring gamble on Disney’s part even with the obvious redactions. Let’s hope a Director’s Cut is released on DVD.
And let’s hope the movie doesn’t get swept away by umpteen other movie releases, CD releases, Christmas specials, etc. Honestly, does any single movie ever get enough time in the spotlight to have much influence these days?
There should at least be an interesting flurry of reaction, including shrill outraged shrieks from the left.
December 12, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Speaking as the mother of four and the grandmother of two, a Disney animated movie NEVER gets buried under the piles and piles of crap that the entertainment industry churns out. Every parent and grandparent in the country will be hauling their little darlings to Frog Princess. I will be taking my grandkids next weekend. And I can also guarantee you that my six-year-old granddaughter will want Princess Tiana everything for Christmas and beyond!
December 12, 2009 at 2:26 am
There is a flip side to this coin, “work hard, stop blaming others for their problems, and take ownership of their lives.”
It’s about time that those who do not need the scold are at last celebrated, as opposed to being insulted, belittled, and even vilified. This is the greater evil.
December 12, 2009 at 3:20 am
I’ve a distinct feeling that this movie involves some of the same folks who worked on The Incredibles and the earlier episodes of TaleSpin.
December 12, 2009 at 5:13 am
Why is that?
What is the Incredibles and Tailspin connection?
December 12, 2009 at 7:14 am
I can’t speak to the TaleSpin connection (haven’t seen that show in a looooooong time), but as the mom of a 2-year-old who watches the Incredibles at least twice a week, I’ll venture to say that ForNow is alluding to the strong messages of always doing your best and also recognizing that some people are able to do really special things that others are not.
Syndrome, the Incredibles villain, wants to get rid of all the Supers and give all of the people things that will make them have pseudo-powers “because when everyone’s super, no one is.” The whole movie goes against the oft-repeated trope of “everyone is special” that’s spoon-fed to kids nowadays. Dash even says in response to his mom saying everyone is special “that’s just another way of saying that nobody is.”
It’s a hard lesson to learn that not everybody is special, that there are average people and you may be one of them. At least, it’s a hard lesson now. That used to be common knowledge. It used to be stressed that you’d have to excel and work hard if you wanted to be seen as special. I think many of the entitlement issues across all aspects of our society have to do with this emphasis of unearned excellence.
December 12, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Agreed! And still one of my favorite movies.
December 12, 2009 at 8:35 pm
That’s most of it, the thematic similarities.
The TaleSpin connection is that the earlier episodes seem to have been written by somebody with a liking for Ayn Rand. It wasn’t heavy-handed and it made the cartoons kind of interesting.
The ideas in The Incredibles seem pretty compatible with that, and far from the usual PC fare. So out of curiosity a few years ago I did some Internet searches to find out whether the same people had written or directed (or whatever) both TaleSpin and The Incredibles. As I recall, some of the same people were involved at the creative level.
December 12, 2009 at 5:56 am
I’m not sure the Race Industry needs to be dismantled, but in its current state it’s worse than useless. It needs to get its collective head out of the liberal wing of the Democrat Party’s ass.
Instead of whining that everyone is raaaaacist, even when they have no such feelings (but Western society is inherently white supremacist, don’cha know), they need to take the Democrats to task for making it harder for black people (and people in general) to work their way up. The excessive regulations are crippling people, as are the shitty public schools, and the problem is worst in places where the Democrats have a stronghold. Black people are disproportionately affected, and no one in the Race Industry cares.
Yes, working hard is good, and needs to be encouraged, but it’s difficult when Democrats are in the pay of the teachers’ unions and refuse to give minority children a good education. Their economic policies are making everthing (even) worse. THey regulate everything to the point where it’s impossible for many people to even own their own taxi, or start a shoe shine business (as homeless people in San Francisco have been trying to do) because it’s so expensive.
December 12, 2009 at 5:57 am
Dr. Utopia will not be pleased. Exec cut in pay coming from the Pay Czar.
December 12, 2009 at 7:48 am
Thanks for the info.
Will be sure to go out and see this one! With the nieces, of course.
SYD
December 12, 2009 at 12:54 pm
I like your web site and your posts Stray Yellow Dog…posts such as this one.
Expanding The Race Card to Include Asians Cuz Too Many of Them Seem to Like Sarah
http://syd4.blogspot.com/2009/12/expanding-race-card-to-include-asians.html
December 12, 2009 at 8:54 am
I’m just guessing, but it’s possible scenes were cut to keep the movie “theater length”. They may be back in an extended version dvd. Let’s hope so.
December 12, 2009 at 10:02 am
hey!
Check out this video from LT Col. Adam West
he’s running for Congress in Fla…You will NOT be disappointed–
He is taking on the race industry as well–we need more Adam Wests…
December 12, 2009 at 12:11 pm
WOOT! That was awesome. Thanks for sharing that.
We need more individuals like him to stand up to Obama’s administration.
December 12, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Here is his campaign web site.
http://allenwestforcongress.com/
December 13, 2009 at 12:19 am
Dammit I want to vote for this guy!!!
I need to see if he’s running in my district.
DAMN GOOD message. If more people thought like that we would have a LOT more successful people.
CHARGE!!!!!!!!!
December 12, 2009 at 12:09 pm
RE: “At least five separate times, she literally looks at the audience and says, “Work hard. Get out of bed and go to work. Stop being lazy. Stop blaming other people for your problems. Find a goal and go work towards it.”
That’s a great message for all children to hear!
HO HO HOBAMA!
(The official White House Seasoned’s Greeting!)
December 12, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Thinking of that great message to get off your duff and earn your way in this world….
Your readers may enjoy this.
That is what economist
John Kenneth Galbraith discovered doing his research into enduring poverty.
The Nature of Mass Poverty
http://www.amazon.com/Nature-Mass-Poverty-Kenneth-Galbraith/dp/073510333X/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_7
To quote one reviewer of that book: “The author, a noted economist from Harvard, visited four continents to determine why some civilizations remain poor. He wondered why some groups had stayed poor for centuries. He found that poor societies accommodate their poverty. As hard as it is to live in poor conditions, unfortunately people find it more difficult to accept the hardship — the challenge — involved in making a better living. Thus, they accommodate their poverty, and it lingers from year to year, even decade to decade. A brilliant insight and a book for the ages.”
December 12, 2009 at 12:38 pm
What about portraying the white characters as filthy rich people who have everything…while portraying the poor black people who have to work three jobs if they want something? Just curious what you see in that aspect of the film..??
December 12, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Amen! That’ racism – both ways!
December 12, 2009 at 5:53 pm
I asked my college graduate Cajun husband how he felt about the goofy lightening bug and his clan being the stereotypical shiftless coon-asses “dat libs on da bayoo”. He said he thought they were hilarious.
Maybe everyone should be like my husband and lighten up :–)
December 12, 2009 at 12:47 pm
I’m waiting for Disney’s film about a tall, rangy woman who – at age 20 and seated on her father’s lap watching the Olympics – decides to make her own stab at fame and immortality. Although too slow of foot to run track, she figures her success lies in developing the most fabulously toned arms evah! Maybe even box for the WBF and win herself one of those big-ass championship belts! One day, while at Bally’s bench pressing 540 lbs, she spies a skinny dude on the treadmill with ears the size of bath mats. (The ears were on the guy, not the treadmill.) Their eyes locked. It was love. They discovered they had much in common: Both were lawyers and crooked as a dog’s hind leg. He was making the most of his Harvard education by walking around the hood telling people to demand more government handouts and register to vote 200 times apiece. She put her Ivy League education to work at a university hospital where her job was to patient-dump the indigent and uninsured by sending them to Veternarian clinics in the next state. They were a match made in heaven. As the years flew by, he became a politician and she opened her own business as Urban Farmer and Fashion Consultant, instructing clients how to cram a size 16 torso into size 10 cardigans and grow arugula. Sadly the business flopped, because times were hard and the peasants could afford neither cardigans or arugula, even if they grew it themelves. But a new opportunity presents itself! She decides to put an end to nasty rumors about her husband’s country of origin and sets out to locate his missing birth certificate. First she travels to the Caribbean where she meets Vera, a sorceress who tells her all kinds of intriguing secrets. She travels to Africa, Indonesia and Pakistan (where she wasn’t supposed to go but she had a foreign passport in her purse so the State Department looks the other way). She has dozens of frightening encounters with all types of bad mammajammas, including Ali Salaam Rezko, who offers her a big brick home and half a vacant lot if she’ll join his harem. The many harrowing adventures she endures are still to be fleshed out, but one thing’s for sure: The missing birth certificate stays missing. I’m thinking of calling it “The Shelle Game.” Title suggestions and plot twists are welcome.
December 12, 2009 at 1:02 pm
And all of that back when she was a little boy too!
Amazing!
December 12, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Great Post Cali Grannie!
Got any links to go with those flap jacks?
December 12, 2009 at 1:00 pm
FINALLY a film with a black character (other than Madea, of course) who calls out the stupidity of the victim mentality, and preaches a message of working hard instead of rolling around in self pity while blaming everyone else.
I haven’t seen a cartoon in theaters since Mulan, but I may see this one.
December 12, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I’ve said THIS for years:
Life is kind of like a pro sports game. You know how, after a game that your team loses by a few points, sometimes you come out and say: oh, we coulda won, but those referees! They kept making so many calls against us! It was terrible, and they missed so many calls against the other team! It wasn’t fair.
Life isn’t fair, though. Everyone has something going against them, and they have to work harder. If your sports team was that good, they would have won – regardless of the calls of the refs. The team needed to be better than the calls by the refs. That’s just the way it goes. We all have things we need to overcome. We all have to ‘overcome’ calls by ‘the refs’ that aren’t in our favor. That’s just the way it goes – and oh, well, if someone won’t GIVE you something, well, you’re just going to have to take it (figuratively speaking, as in, figure out another way to get it).
it’s unfortunate, but the skit by Eddie Murphy from well over 20 years ago (on SNL) is still relevant. Where he dresses up like a white man and goes out and finds out how everywhere he goes, people give him stuff, he applies for a loan at the bank – they give him the money, tell him he doesn’t have to pay it back. He wants to buy a newspaper, he’s told don’t worry – he doesn’t have to pay for it. And on and on. It is even MORE relevant today…which is extremely sad. It seems that some portion of our society thinks some other is getting everything they ever wanted, and if only they had that, well, all would be well. But seriously – that’s so not the case, if you work hard you typically can get a roof over your head – sometimes things are beyond your control, but not typically – but one typically has to do the hard work to get there. Almost no one out there gets given everything – and those that do – well, I don’t think most of us REALLY want all that goes with that.
December 12, 2009 at 6:37 pm
[...] for myself just how adroitly, or, heavy handedly the story was handled, but I must say I find Hillbuzz’s description of the film’s exhortations to blacks to be disturbing: The most [...]
December 13, 2009 at 11:04 am
Wow, someone calling PUMAS racists… thats new and different …
December 12, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Just saw PatF with my daughter (4)and son (7). I personally loved it. I agree with HB that it should have a positive effect on children. But for me, those are values that I grew up with. Both of my parents worked their asses off, never complaining. Each had several siblings, and as far as I can tell the majority of my cousins hold that same ethic. I realize that we may be the exception to the rule. I understand that. Unfortunately, I believe that parallels displayed in the movie, as it pertains to Dr. U will go RIGHT OVER THE HEADS of those that need that lesson the most. There is hope for the children, though. I thought the movie was really goo. I think it accurately protrayed the culture of New Orleans (well, as far as Disney could go). I agree that there seemed to be parts of the story missing. My son enjoyed it more than my daughter. I wasn’t suprised, because Tiana was a frog for the majority of the movie. She kept saying, “When is she going to turn back into a princess?” I knew that was coming before we in walked in the theatre.She is a true princess. She said her favorite part was when “they kissed and she turned back into a prin cess and they got married”.
Ironically, she wanted to wear her Cinderalla costume gown, along with her tiara to the movie.
Of course I let her:)
December 12, 2009 at 7:25 pm
[...] The Princess and the Frog is the most devastating assault on the Race Industry in our lifetime Today, a few of us went to see Disney’s “Princess & the Frog”. It is an interesting, but not terribly [...] [...]
December 13, 2009 at 9:54 am
Saw it with three of my kids, liked it a lot.
I just don’t pull quite as much out of it regarding the race industry as you do. I celebrate Tiana as the first Disney princess of African descent because it’s great for a little girl like my daughter to have someone who looks like her to look up to in such a popular and ubiquitous genre, though kids are often barely cognizant of color. It’s important for the “black community” in that regard. But I just can’t think of a movie with a black Disney princess as a movie made FOR the black community, any more than I can think of Pocahontas as a movie made for Native Americans. Yeah, racial messaging will be pulled out of the movie regardless of intent. But ultimately, Disney simply uses Disnified race and Disnified culture more as colorful, varied, widely appealing backdrop for stories that are much more universal.
The messages, “Work hard. Don’t get distracted or discouraged. Hold on to your dream. Love is more important than anything else.” were excellent for any and every person. And if they hit someone who, ahem, NEEDS the messages even more than others? Well, then, that’s excellent.
The piece that had me a little nervous in the beginning was the constant contrasting of the ultra-rich, spoiled, doesn’t-have-to-work-for-anything WHITE girl and the poor, BLACK, oh-so-noble girl in the early parts of the movie. At one point, a song emphasized the word “RICH” with a still shot of the ultra-rich white family, then immediately cut to a shot of the black family on the word “POOR.” Really blatant, and I thought, “Oh, no, they’re really working that angle a little too hard…” After that, though, they quit belaboring the point,diversified their rich/poor characterizations more and I think the messages shined through.
Because…
1.that implicit message was presented so clearly at first
2. it WAS presented with color delineation (white= spoiled, rich/black= poor,works for everything)
3. it DOES play into the race industry’s race and class warfare worldview
…that was the race-related piece I was actually more concerned about.
People of all races need the work hard message, but I think that those infected by race industry thinking in the black community who actually DO need it most will miss the message completely anyway.
Unfortunately, there’s simply a more palatable alternative presented by the movie’s initial belaboring of the rich/poor point. Because it plays so much into “reverse-racism” stereotypes, it will be more easily latched onto by those inclined to want to hear their own views echoed, more than any tough love “work hard/quit blaming” message. We all have much better ears for hearing messages that confirm us above those that challenge us, even if the confirming message is weaker!
December 13, 2009 at 11:28 am
Educators have been complaining about the Disneyfication of stories for decades one of the most recent and on point is by Wendy Friedmeyer
So why should we expect anything but the oversimplification of problems of race from the corporate fairy tale shill? I am glad you find this movie disturbing … anyone parenting who reads beyond what they can find on the internet by googling , will probably find it disturbing as well .
Clarissa Pinkola Estes of
Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype fame had the same complaint about stories pertaining especially to women and young girls ; oversimplification, disneyfication and lack of substance and merit in the stories for young women so that they may to truly grow , in our culture .